I believe

I have a confession. I hate the “holidays”. I didn’t hate it when the “holidays” started on Thanksgiving and ended on New Years Day. I blame Target for making me dread the holidays. They take down the back to school display and put up Crapmas. Crapmas has replaced Christmas. It’s driven by am overwhelming desire to buy tons of crap as a means to show our love for others.

December is a tough month for swim families. We had three weekends of swim meets and we manage to sneak in practices even when the pool is closed. Mid December it dawned on us that we hadn’t put up a tree and the only thing on the mantle was a thin layer of dust.

I was able to get our tree up and threw a box of ornaments beside it. It became a work in progress, decorations were added here and there. Stockings were hung in the hopes that St. Nick would get her butt to the mall.

Personally, I opt to give each of the girls a wad of cash and be done with it. But for the fact that Sophie still “believes”. Chris and I have such a hard time with the charade. By some standards, we are considered “bad” parents. We don’t have an Elf. We don’t write letters to Santa. We don’t track Santa. We don’t oversell the myth. The legend. The Lie.

The other day at the pool I mistakenly got into a debate with a fellow swim mom. The long and short of it…her son was teetering on the Santa fence. Chris and I have been there twice. We can’t wait to go there a third time. For us it’s the end of a charade. For others, just the beginning.

This mom was willing to go to great lengths to continue the Santa facade. I don’t begrudge her that. But where I draw the line in the sand, she was willing to kick the shit out of it. She told her kids to tell any child that “didn’t believe” that they quite simply didn’t have god in their hearts and were going to hell. Awesome at its finest.

I have two non believers. One on the fence. When she asks I plan to give it to her straight. Is there magic in Christmas without Santa. I believe there is. As far as the parent who believes people who don’t believe in Santa are going to hell? Well, last I checked, yeah, umm, there is no such thing. Shocker that people hate the holidays huh?